Returning to the earliest works of The Rolling Stones is a bit like tapping up unfulfilled potential. Mick Jagger proves himself a worthy frontman, Charlie Watts is in full command of percussion and rhythm while Keith Richards and Bill Wyman plug away on The Rolling Stones, Now!. Yet three albums in the band had not found a strong footing in their original material. Further covers which would define the band through the 1960s, like opener Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, do the heavy lifting here. What few Jagger and Richards-written pieces make it through on The Rolling Stones, Now!, feel relatively limited in the face of those tambourine-crashing covers. People joke about Bob Dylan’s harmonica being too loud for a car radio. Try Everybody Needs Somebody to Love at a high volume. There go your eardrums.
Give it a few hours and the ringing becomes commonplace. It means you can stick around for the likes of Down Home Girl, bluesy pieces which cut through thanks to some softer harmonica work, some staggering confidence from Jagger and the subtle swing of those crashing piano additions. All of it comes together with a virtuosity The Rolling Stones would later discard for tougher material, for stronger tempo changes. Here is the noisy mixture which comes good because it plays around with the tone of classic tracks. Three albums in, though, and this was starting to lose its shine. Heart of Stone is a delightful piece, the first of the Jagger and Richards written pieces, a ballad where slow heartbreaks and slick guitar riffs are all the rage. A thoroughly refreshing experience after the limitations of their cover work, to begin with, the defiance heard on Heart of Stone still stands strong. What a Shame follows on with some similar sounds of resistance, again with a cool bit of guitar work and some staggering piano efforts feeding the simpler lyrical structure.
Covers continue to dominate what is a very well-structured album. The likes of Bo Diddley and Solomon Burke numbers shine a light on the influences of The Stones at the time, and they are made good on. Yet when the originals shine through, it makes all the difference. Off the Hook is a good bit of fun but falls well short, especially when follow-up cover, Pain in My Heart, works the blues occasion well. So too does Oh Baby (We’ve Got a Good Thing Goin’), another confident approach from Jagger and the skilful instrumental adaptations made to classic songs are all part of The Stones’ growth, but there is little more to The Rolling Stones, Now!, than their continued progression as a dependable group.
What they needed was a punch of originals, and they would get as much in the albums to follow. Brian Jones makes all the difference here, and paired with Richards the two make even the dullest parts (Little Red Rooster) sound exciting. This is a head above the rest releasing at the times but, much like The Beatles with Please Please Me, the later releases bring on a heavy wave of hindsight. They are still part of the genre but are far more advanced because the instrumental skill and vocal talent at the heart is still refining itself for better projects down the road. The Rolling Stones, Now! remains a perfectly listenable experience, filled with moments of appreciation for Jagger and Jones, but it pales in comparison to their fully original albums.
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